Funeral protection life insurance is simply a way of ensuring your loved ones are taken care of financially when you pass away.

The best way to determine whether or not you need funeral protection life insurance is to ask yourself a few simple questions, including:

• Would my dependants, loved ones, family or friends be financially able to cover my funeral expeneses as and when my time comes?
• Would my death have a financial impact on anyone close to me, such as children or partner?
• Would I like to alos be able to leave some money behind as a gift to my loved ones, such as grand children, upon my passing?

There are a whole host of life insurance policies you can choose from, whether it’s a whole- of-life policy or a policy where you determine the duration, or ‘term’, of how long you need cover for. Our guide on choose the right cover will help you decide which is potentially right for you.

If you have placed the cover in a trust and you pass away during the course of the policy, then we will payout to your chosen beneficiary. If it’s not in a trust, then we will pay your estate.

Yes, there are both single person and two-person plans. A two-person plan will cover each individual’s needs in one plan that is owned by both parties.

Yes, you have the flexibility to change your level of cover at any point once your policy has been set up.

Funeral proection life insurance cover is dependant on a variety of factors such as your age, gender, smoker status, fitness, medical history and the amount of cover that you choose.

The right life insurance policy depends on your individual circumstances. Before you find out which life insurance is the best option for you, it’s important to think about:

• How long do you need the protection to last for?
• How much do you want your life insurance to pay out?
• How much can you afford to pay in premiums?

The most popular type of funeral protection life insurance is called ‘Whole-of-Life’ insurance. This pays a lump sum when you pass away. However, depending on your overall health and monthly affordbale budget, another alternative us a ‘term’ policy which will payout within an agreed period (or ‘term’), most commonly up until age 90.

The two main types of term life insurance cover are: level-term insurance and Whole-of-Life insurance.

Level term – Up to age 90

Level term cover provides a cash lump sum upon your death which your beneficiaries can use to settle debts, a continued contribution to their lifestyle (such as day-to-day costs or education) or to spend however they wish. This type of life insurance could be used to provide a cash sum for your family or to help cover an interest only mortgage.

Whole-of-Life insurance cover operates in the same way as level term, however the payout increases alongside inflation, ensuring that the value of your payout is protected against the affect of inflation over long periods of time. For this reason, increasing term cover tends to have the highest monthly premiums.

When looking at life insurance, there are two main categories of life cover: term insurance and whole-of-life assurance.

Term insurance is the most popular kind of cover because you can set it for a certain time frame, called the term. It pays out a lump sum or a monthly income if you or your partner die within this set period. If you don’t die, the policy simply lapses and you get nothing back. It’s a way of financing your family or loved ones after you pass away.

Whole-of-life assurance, as the name suggests, offers protection for your lifetime until your eventual death, whenever it occurs, and therefore premiums are much higher. But there is a guaranteed payout whenever you die, which can be used by your family to pay for funeral costs, and anything else they might need to do.

There isn’t an average cost of life insurance. If you think about the needs you currently have and compare them to those of your parents or children, they will probably differ wildly. However, you may both want the same type of insurance policy.

The important factors that insurers will need to know about your health include:

• age
• height
• weight
• status as a smoker or non-smoker
• family medical history
• lifestyle concerns (such as alcohol consumption)
• any known diseases or disorders
• whether you have or have had diagnosed mental health issues.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, and different insurers will vary in which of these they ask for and the level of scrutiny that they require.

Your profession may also play a role when assessing risk for an insurer. Someone whose job involves working in dangerous environments – such as underwater or around explosives – will find that how much they pay for life insurance each month is higher than (for example) a primary school teacher.

Moreover, being self-employed may affect your life insurance estimate. This is because it is normally harder for self-employed people to obtain high credit scores, and doesn’t necessarily reflect your individual situation.

Life cover pays a cash sum if you die or are diagnosed with a terminal illness whereby you have been given less than 12 months to live. Policies are generally designed to help families cope with the financial pressure of losing the household’s main earner. There are many different varieties of life cover, suiting all sorts of needs.

Cover to last for a defined period or for the rest of your life?

Cover just for you, or for you and your partner?

Cover that stays at the same level, or increases with inflation?

Cover that pays out as a lump sum or as an income?

Terminal Illness Benefit is a benefit included in Life Insurance. It pays out the ‘Death Benefit’ at the point you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness rather than on death.

Critical Illness Cover is a different kind of cover that protects you if you’re diagnosed with one of the critical, but not necessarily fatal, illnesses during the length of your policy.

Term Assurance is the cover we most often recommend. It pays out on the death of the policy holder for the period insured and offers very good value for money.

Set the level of cover you need, and for how long.

If you die in that period, the policy pays out.

Many policies pay early if you find you’ve under 12 months to live.

As the name implies, a whole-of-life insurance policy provides cover for your entire lifetime and guarantees a lump sum payment when the policyholder dies – provided premiums have been continuously paid throughout the policy.

As usual, the proceeds of the policy will go to the policyholder’s family or beneficiaries of their estate. Premiums are high because a claim is inevitable.

This kind of policy is often taken out to cover future inheritance tax bills, which is payable at 40% on the value of your estate over £325,000 (for the tax year 2019/20), including your property and all other assets.

No. Term Life insurance is designed to payout if you die within the agreed term of the policy (In the same way, car insurance won’t pay out if you don’t have an accident and pet insurance doesn’t pay if your pet stays well during the policy).

However, the only policy that will guarantee to payout regardless of when you die is called whole-of-life insurance. This policy guarantees to payout as, unlike a term policy with a specified cover length, a whole-of-life insurance policy has no end date so will always be in a position to payout as long as you never stop paying your monhtly premiums prior to your death.